''ROCKERS'' is another Jamaican movie with the sparkle of ''The
Harder They Come,'' which it manages to resemble but not
imitate. In fact, ''Rockers'' is in many respects the better of
the two. ''The
Harder They Come'' had the invaluable advantage of coming first,
and the area both films cover is almost narrow enough to make a second
seem superfluous. But ''Rockers'' holds its ground, thanks to its funny,
offbeat players and sinuous reggae score.

"Rockers,'' which opens today at the Eighth Street Playhouse, is
about many of the same things the earlier film was about, though it's
slightly more polished in some technical respects. Its hero, Leroy (Horsemouth)
Wallace, lives lackadaisically in Kingston and works as a drummer, if he
works at all. But the Jamaican music business, which looked nasty enough
in ''The Harder They Come,'' is made to seem even more wicked here.
Horsemouth's drumming talents aren't paid much heed, and when he tries
to supplement his income by distributing records from the pressing
plants to the stores, he can earn only 25 cents a disk. Unlike Jimmy
Cliff, an angrier leading man in ''The
Harder They Come,'' Horsemouth simply shrugs and enjoys himself,
figuring he'll get even eventually. He does, in the film's merry
concluding sequences.

Rockers
comes to
Blu-ray
in quite a meager offering. Despite the single-layering with
the film taking up less than 13 Gig it certainly doesn't
look bad at all considering the film's age and relatively
limited production roots. Where the 2005 US DVD was 1.33 -
this is 1.78, like the UK DVD, but I am unsure which is
correct. Grain is present and there is noise in the
darker sequences - but as the film uses natural light and
mostly outdoor sequences it never became an issue with my
viewing. This
Blu-ray
exports some decent, accurate colors - brighter than I would
have anticipated. Detail is stronger than DVD standard
but is not notably sharp. There is some minor depth but the
best thing one can say about the image is that it handily
surpasses the Anniversary DVD but would never be considered
demo material.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

No HD track for
all the deeply evocative music of the film. The 5.1 sounds marginally
deeper (and louder) than the 2.0 channel but it is not what adopters of
the format have come to expect from
Blu-ray.
I suspect its the exact same remastered tracks from the DVD. It's a
shame since the film's Jamaican reggae music is so much a big part of
the film experience. It never comes to life as fans might have hoped.
There are optional subtitles for the Jamaican Patois - in English,
French, Japanese and Spanish. My Momitsu
identifies that this is a region FREE releases playable on
Blu-ray
machines worldwide.

Extras :

The supplements
may be the most disappointing aspect of this Blu-ray as none of the 25th
Anniversary DVD extras are moved over - so there is no Bafaloukos'
commentary that had the video pop-ups. In fact, there are no extras at
all on this hi-def disc but the only redeeming factor is that the price
reflects that.

BOTTOM LINE: I'd have to say this strong cult film really gets short-changed on
Blu-ray. While the image looks pretty good - it's no where near the
potential of the format (we will investigate the aspect
ratio issue) and the audio seems to have no improvement at
all from the similarly priced DVD from 2005. The film's a
hoot and while this may be the best way to see it in your
home theater - the lack of extras and limitations make it a
disappointment.

Gary Tooze

June
18th, 2009

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 7500
DVDs and have reviewed over 3000 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver.
Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our
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Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be
it, but film will always be my first love and I list my
favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible
HERE.